The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1887-10-12

men. And he kept Mr.. Hardy In
place because he found him useful; his
knoSledge of navigation was great, and
he had sailed in almost every known
sea.
Against his protest, the Captain en-
gagged cabin-boy for this voyage. he
was the orphan grandson of one of the
legless veterans of the Royal Navy,
and he had been about Greenwich Hos
pital so much, and heard SO many STIR
ring stories of the sea from the disabled
aud superannuated tars laid up there,
that he was longing to make voyage
Captain Converse liked his bright looks
and manly talk, and took him on this
voyage. The boys name was Rodney
Barre.
1t is not necessary to the proper I'M
derstanding of the story that all that
befell the ship and her crew on the
voyage down the Atlantic and round
the Horn should be told. 1t was
then voyage of many weeks, as it il
now. under sail. The Captain was
mild and easy as ever; the mate was
quite as brutal as he had ever been
known to be, and the quick, bright
cabin-boy kept his eyes and ears open
and learned something new every day
about sea-faring.
1t was when the Cynthia had got we'll
up in the low ATTITUDES of the Pacific
that great disaster happened.
For a week the Captain had been
confined to his berth in his cabin by
low, listless ship-fever. In that week
he was unable to visit the deck, and
Rodney was busy attending to him.
The ships chest had a few simple
drugs and remedies, of which every
shipmaster was supposed to know the
use, and Captain Converse attempted
to prescribe for himself. He did not
make much of success of it.
think that if he had known half
the shocking treatment that the mate
was dealing out to the sailors he would
have got upon deck some way and
stopped it; but he did not, and Mr..
Kinds brutality went on till the catas-
trophe came.
1t came on a still. quiet night, when
the ship was hardly moving through
the water. The Captain was slightly
delirious, and Rodney was awake al
most the whole night, wetting his
head, and wing him powders and
drink. About midnight the cabin-boy
heard strange noises from the deck.
There were shouts and cries, pistol
shot; and later, the sound of oars in
the water, rounding the ships stern.
Rodney looked out through the bulls
eye window, but the night was dark,
and nothing was in sight.
He thought he would go cautiously
4 l. 49,
the cabindoor, and found it locked.
When the long hours of the night
had passed, the Captain woke from his
slumber and was conscious. The boy
told him what he had heard.
Something dreadful has happened"
the Captain groaned. "Take Ratchet
from the locker, break the lock of the
door, and find out what's wrong"
Something very dreadful had hap
pened, and Rodney was not long in
finding it out. The mate was propped
up against the foremost, with two
knives driven through his breast and
bullet-hole in his head. A white paper
was pinned to his coat, scrawled over
with rude characters, which the boy
deciphered as follows
"Sir Capt. We likes you, and We
would not hurt you nor the boy; but this
here brute had to be put where the
devil will Civ him the ropes end. We
start him on his vige. and we goes our
ways. Fair well, and may you make
port safe"
All around this queer letter were
signed the names of the seamen,
"round-robin" style, so that, in case
they were caught, the names of the
ringleaders would not be known.
Rodney looked from the horrible
spectacle of the deck and saw that there
was a dead calm. The sea was like
glass. The sails of the Cynthia idly
tapped from the yards. Not another
sail was in sight. The mutinous and
runaway crew had taken the long-boat
and the jolly-boat and were now far
beyond call or sight.
Rodney took the paper and went
back to the cabin. The Captain, weak
and sick as he was, helpless and I'M
nerved, heard the boys account and
fell back groaning on his pillow.
God be merciful to u.s." he cried.
1T is judgment upon us for not
standing between Kinds and my poor
sailors. knew my duty, and did it
not. Boy, we shall starve; we shall
drift helpless till the storms carry us
to the bottom. Poor innocent that you
are, l have involved you in my punish
ment."
Rodney Barre was but twelve years
old; but "the child is the father of the
man," and the hero-spirit of his later
years began to shine out in him. He
talked cheerfully and soothingly to the
sick Captain, and told him what he
thought he could do. There would be
no danger, he said, while the calm con-
tinued; and, before a gale came up, he
hoped to signal some vessel and get re-
lief.
"How, I'd like to know?" fretfully
interrupted the Captain.
"I'll run up the Union-Jack, union
down, to the main top-mast.
Well. But there's no water nor
food in the cabin lockers, here. Ten
to one some of those sailors locked up
the bulkhead door and threw the key
overheard. How will you get to the hard
biscuit, salt-junk, and water casks ?"
Il can find an axe" said Rodney.
"I,lI hraal IN